Amid vehement protests by the various Opposition parties over its failure to disperse the compensation to the farmers affected drought, hailstorm and unseasonal rains, the BJP-led saffron alliance Government on Monday announced that through its “Jalyukta Shivar Abhiyan”, it planned to take permanent measures to make Maharashtra a “drought-free” State by 2019.
On a day when the Opposition members staged a noisy protests at the entrance of Vidhan Bhavan over the Devendra Fadnavis dispensation’s failure to compensate the farmers affected by drought, hailstorm and unseasonal rains, Maharashtra Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao said that given the adverse impact of the recurrent droughts, the State Government had initiated “Jalyukta Shivar Abhiyan” to make the State drought-free State by 2019. He said that the State Government planned to harvest rain water within the village boundaries thereby increasing ground water levels.
Addressing the members from both the Houses at a joint sitting held on the first day of the Budget session of the State legislature, the Governor announced that the State Government would promoted micro irrigation systems for efficient use of water, thereby increasing the irrigated area. He said the State Government had set itself an ambitious target of making 5,000 villages free from water scarcity every year.
The Governor said that owing to unseasonal rains and hailstorm witnessed during November and December last year, crops and cultivable land in some parts of the State had been damaged. “The Government therefore decided to give special relief and concession to affected farmers immediately and compensated for the loss of life, cattle and damaged houses. The package is much higher than the norms of the National Disaster Response Force,” he said.
Rao said that scarcity-like situation had been declared in 23,811 villages of the State, where paisewari was less than 50 paise. “Various relief measures have been implemented in these areas as per standing orders, which include repayment of loans taken by the farmers from the moneylenders, conversion of outstanding crop loan into short term loan and stay on recovery of agricultural loans,” he said.
The Governor said that the State Government had submitted a memorandum to the Government of India for financial assistance. “However, my Government released Rs 4,000 crore without waiting for the Central assistance through the Direct Benefit Transfer scheme,” he said.
The Opposition legislators staged protests at the entrance of the Vidhan Bhavan and greeted the Governor with banners and noisy slogans in protest against the State Government’s failure to keep its promise of extending compensation to the farmers affected by the drought, hailstorm and unseasonal rains across the State.
The Opposition members also registered their protest against the State Government for its scrap reservation to Muslims in Government jobs and admissions to State-run educational institutions and its failure to arrest the culprits behind the murder of senior CPI leader Govind Pansare.
later, in his address to a joint sitting of both the Houses, the Governor said that the State Government will lay emphasis on the use of state-of-the-art techniques for utilisation of State’s water resources in an optimum, equitable and sustainable manner and would lend support to farmers by giving irrigation facilities.
Rao said that steps like empowerment of farmers, renovation of old projects, and conjunctive use of surface and ground water etc. would be undertaken. The farmers’ participation in the irrigation management and use of micro irrigation would be incentivised.